Battling red slime

[jc]

Nutrient export is the key. Also try siphoning it out if you can.

[Teeb]

I wouldn't go that far, just turning off the lights should be enough. Personally, I wouldn't turn off the lights myself, I'd just work towards exporting as much of the waste as I can -- good sized water changes, every day or 2 for a week or so. You should see a difference quickly.

-Corruption

I've been trying that, 30% - 40% every 5 days and no luck, and that's with dosing the meds as well.

[justahobby]

Your case sounds pretty tough. I just reread your first post. Tank is at least 8 mo. old and its a biocube right?

Have you cleaned the back chambers? There's a sponge right before the return pump that traps detritus. I had problems with purple slime in a biocube and it turned out to be the build up of detritus in the back. I sucked all kinds of junk out of those death trap chambers. I also took out the bio balls, upgraded the pump, added a powerhead, and added a skimmer as a preventative for the future.

[ErikH]

thaw your food and rinse it.

[justahobby]

thaw your food and rinse it.

LoL, Simply put yet so correct. Flake food is also a big culprit of high phosphates.

[Teeb]

I will start rinsing food tonight. Thanks Justin and Eric for corals, both your tanks are beautiful and it was neeting both of you.

[Teeb]

Update: It's still coming back if I don't dose and WC the tank every 3 days. It's driving me crazy. I do know that I'm having temp swings, but other than that, I've tried everything I can think of. I'm bumping up my heater to try and level everything out. I just don't know what else to do. I've cut back lighting and feeding, upped circulation, all of my parameters are normal. Anyone have any other ideas?

[joelb]

teeb, go to tx tropical and tell them your problem and they will point you to the same thing they pointed me to, get it, use it and it will not come back. its because i used tap water for water changes. they say ro/di is the way to go... who do they think they are?!

[GoneReefing]

I had a problem with cyano on my 20G. my tank has been established for over a year. It broke out with a combination of two things, I believe. Changed my lights from stock bulbs to ATI/UVL combo and was feeding flake food occasionally. I bumped down the light cycle for a few weeks and quit feeding flake food and did water changes 3x a week instead of once a week. During the water changes I would siphon it right off the sand bed. Right now I only have a little bit left and every day I notice less and less. As other stated the key is really to starve it out with less light and the most important less nutrients and always use RO/DI, never tap as it usually has high phosphates which cyano loves. Good luck with the battle.

[justahobby]

I've gotta reitterate cyano meds are primarily antibiotics and will deplete your denitrifying bacteria..... Leaving you w/ the nitrates spurring on cyano. If you are still using them, stop and give your bio filtration time to catch up. With heavy cyano production its possible your parameters aren't an accurate representation of your nitrates like phosphates tests. Recheck for build up of detritus. If you have bio balls,LR, algae, filter floss in the back chambers they will need regular rinsing on SW.Have you tested your new SW to see if there's any contaminates? I've had a dirty powerhead (used to mix SW) give off ammonia. I've had my own theory that when you have an excess of cyano and or algae the die off will only feed new growth. It might take an hour or two, but vigorously removing every visable piece will put a damper in its production.